Mass Effect: Invasion
by RagnarBlackmane
Summary: When the remnants of the Invaders chapter are stranded in the Mass Effect galaxy 20 years before the First Contact war, just how will the future change?
1. Chapter 1

**Unknown location,**

**Unknown date**

**Aboard the Forgeship, _Fires of War_.**

As awareness returned, his senses revolted, shifting and swaying akin to a drunkard, his eyes only processing banks of darkness hovering above the bright orange smears. Metallic screeches warbled across his hearing and an filthy, harsh taste filled his mouth and burned his lungs.

Figures, blurred and incomprehensible darted to and fro, flashes of sparkling white lights appearing wherever they stopped. Deep, bone jarring shakes and mighty groaning is if from a god filled the surroundings repeatedly.

Where was he? Who was he? He was... an Imperial, yes. Human! Yes, he was human... no. No, no, he was more than human. Above them, forever standing before them, a sword and shield. Maybe something about being clay. He couldn't remember, the pain was driving forth in waves, pushing his conscious mind back. That just wasn't acceptable.

He had something to do... yes, yes, he was Astartes. He had duty, yes, oh yes. He needed to get up, and find out what as happening. The deep shuddering and groaning sounded again, forcing his mind to speed up.

He was... Harken yes. Harken of the Invaders Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Captain. He was a Captain... no. That wasn't right. He used to be a Captain, he remembered that. Then... something happened. Something terrible. Screams and shaking and burning and horror.

No, he was no Captain now.

Now he was a Chapter Master.

Chapter. Master.

Master of a Chapter. Master of the Invaders... who where running. Yes, yes, they where running. He was aboard the chapters most prized possession, the one thing they needed to continue on in the Emperors name.

And it was...

He took a deep breathe.

It was burning.

Yes, yes it was burning. No... no,no,no, that was bad. Very bad. He had to get up. With an effort that felt equal to lifting a tank, Harken raised his arm to his head. The metal thumped slightly as it met his helm... but he felt nothing. That wasn't right... no, not at all.

The sensors embedded within the gauntlet should have sent a signal through the black carapace, to his fingers, which would then be sent to his brain. He should be feeling the heat, slickness, consistency and roughness of whatever he touched through his hands. Almost like he wasn't wearing armour at all. But he didn't.

And his arm felt so heavy.

Okay... so... armour status. He needed armour status. He just had to think the right thing so the right brainwaves activated that particular programme...

Hum. It wasn't working. So...

No senses, no assisted movement, no activation at all. Coughing. Huh. He was coughing now. He had not coughed in a hundred years. Why was he coughing... the smoke, yes. But he was wearing his helm... why would...

Ar. Total system failure. His armours power generator was offline. It must have opened his mouth vents just before it shut down. He could deal with smoke. He couldn't deal with suffocating while unconscious in sealed armour that wasn't recycling air. Not for too long anyway.

So... he needed... to take his helm off. Struggling to control his fingers, Harken moved his hand to his neck seals claps. A few minutes later, after regaining much of his finger dexterity and the senses from the environment at large slowly calm down the chapter masters helm felt to the floor with a dull bang.

"Report!" his command was wheezed out with a cough. That wasn't right. Why wasn't his multi-lung dealing with the smoke?

An ugly and grating computer like voice replied to Harken directly "You are injured. Massive tissue damage to chest cavity. Serious head injury. We have removed the ceiling support from your chest. You will heal. Likeliness of temporary cognitive impairment is 87.95%. You will rest, an apothecary is inbound. The Chapter Masters commands are unnecessary at this current time"

The speaker was one of the dark shapes running around. Synthetic voice. Percentages. A Techmarine then. Friendly, and he said an apothecary is coming. Good. And he wasn't needed at the moment. Even better.

He felt the need to pass out come, and he gladly embraced it.

***Invasion***

This is just a little something that came to me. Chapter lengths and updates will be completely random. I may update several times a day or once a month. Who knows.


	2. Chapter 2

Pain. It hurt.

But pain meant life. If he was in pain, he was alive. Because life was pain.

So the pain was a good sign. Good. Now if only he could open his eyes. Because they felt kind of heavy. That was to be expected Harken supposed. A bit of bloody lose and serious impalement issues tends to cause things like that. Still he wasn't an Astartes for nothing. With an effort he opened his eyes.

A white ceiling. Silver machines. Tubes. Whirling sounds. Quiet voices, but heavy footfalls. An Apothecarium then. He just wanted to rest...

Chapter Master.

Escape. Burning.

He could sleep when he was dead.

With a grunt he placed his arms on the surface of the metal slab on which he lay and pushed himself to a sitting position. While the faintness crept through his body from the overexertion, he looked around and confirmed his location. Definitely an Apothecarium. Marines lay on slab tables all around, armour in various states of destruction from cracks to being scrap metal. Limbless marines determinately clenched their jaws as sawbones cut away tissue to damaged to save, while others used the supplies on hand to tend their wounds.

"Ah, you are awake" The jovial voice of Erasmus Ironburg rung through the small sound dampener unit that surrounded the healing section Harken sat upon. Soon enough the newcomer came into view. The white coloured armour, small in size for an astartes, was covered in blood, obscuring the green pauldron and the Invaders icon. His helm was off, showing the old marines weather beaten and scarred face. Erasmus wore his snow white hair short around his head, bald on top. Four small metal studs where embedded in his brow just above the right eye. An arterial spray had caught him in the head it appeared, dying part of his hair red.

Harken could barley stand the too happy apothecary at the best of times. This was far from the best of circumstances. "Apothecary, tell me what happened," he shot out quickly, to deter any idle conversation.

Erasmus cocked his head slightly, his eyes sweeping over various monitoring systems as he reached out to make several adjustments to the systems. A robotic arm lowered itself from the wall and injected Harken with several liquids. As the medication quickly began to restore Harkens strength the veteran astartes began his report.

"Part of the command bridge collapsed while the _Fires_ made its strategic withdrawal," he sniffed, sounding none too happy "a support came free and went through your chest. Your multi-lung was forced to shut down and your secondary heart is a write off. We had to replace it with an augmentic. A console also appears to have hit your head rather hard. When you removed your helm, your skull all but fell apart. We had to speed up the healing process. You are needed." he ended gruffly, seeming a bit jittery.

"What do you mean, speed up?" Harken asked suspiciously as he slowly attempted to stand. He noted that he wore only patient clothing. His armour was nowhere to be seen.

"Metal bars melted to the skull" was the quick response as the apothecary handed him a small mirror. "The chapters commanding officers await you on the reserve bridge" he added before darting away.

Confused, but happily numb from the provided drugs, Harken raised the mirror to his face.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

His face stared back at him from the reflective surface. Only, it bared only a passing resemblance to his face. Well... his old face at least.

Horrendous scares criss crossed his face where the apothecary had cut him open to place metal plates. Metal plates that where visible as raised rectangles under the skin. Two studs covered his light brown eyes, and his former dirty blonde hair was cut away.

He blinked again. This was useless. He had a chapter to see too.

Slowly Harken exited the room, pausing only to cover his patient garb with a chapter training robe. At a sluggish pace he made his way to the secondary bridge, briefly stopping several chapter serfs to confirm it's location, passing through grim corridors decorated with the trophies of a thousand wars. Captured alien equipment and skeletons stared down from glass cases, while power conduits sparked from overhead. Servitors and surfs rushed to and fro carrying equipment for the fast moving Techmarines who paused briefly to bark orders before moving on.

Eventually he arrived at a large armoured door guarded by two Terminator armoured veterans. They both nodded quickly before one palmed the activation switch.

Taking a deep breath Harken strode forth.

***Invasion***

Tell me if I make any spelling mistakes please, and I will fix them. Also, any advice you feel it need to hear would be welcomed. This is the only time I will ask.


End file.
